In the medical field, it is necessary to implant sensors and devices that need both fluid processing and electrical signal processing. It is very costly to manufacture the miniature devices of a few centimeters in size due to the one at a time manufacturing of these devices. Also, it is very laborious to connect the fluidic and electrical cables to the sensor housing and the external instrumentation because each cable is individually integrated. The current invention embodies integrated manufacturing of a microsystem which contains both the fluidic and electrical sensors and the corresponding connectable flexible pathways or cables.
Due to the integral manufacturing of the cables on the substrate, the manual connections are eliminated and cost is dramatically reduced. The term “integrated manufacturing” refers to all processes used for batch production of semiconductor microelectronics, and all related microfacrication processes such as LIGA (see R. S. Muller, R. T. Howe, S. D. Senturia, R. L. Smith, and R. M. White ed. Microsensors, IEEE Press. 472 pages, 1990).
Microfabrication technologies include but are not limited to sputtering, electrodeposition, low-pressure vapor deposition, photolithography, screen printing and etching, micromolding, spin coating and wafer and chip level microassembly. Integrated microfabricated devices are usually formed on silicon, glass and plastic substrates.